Laïcité Inch'Allah

Laïcité Inch'Allah.

Those two words, one in French and one in Arabic, are drenched in meaning well beyond their eight syllables. The first is a word marking the triumph of the secularist side in a long, bitter struggle against the Catholic Church in France. Since the 1905 French law that definitively separated church and state, it has been a principle that political discourse across the spectrum accepts without reservation.

The second word literally means, "If God wills". According to the Koran, Muslims should say it whenever they speak of future events. In Muslim countries, however, it has come to mean "maybe I will do it", "perhaps I will get around to it", or even "fat chance".

Put the two together and you get something along the lines of "Secularism, if God wants it" with a heavy connotation of "Secularism, fat chance". In two words it smashes together two vastly different cultures and worldviews, and raises a host of questions. Can the development of Catholicism in Europe be a model for Islam in Arab countries? Can an idea from France be put into practice in an Arab country it colonized? Should it? In short, the title is genius.

As of late, the Parisian metro walls have been plastered with advertisements for a new film by exactly this title. Directed by Nadia El Fani, it opens today in France. It's about Tunisia, where secularism is on much weaker footing than in France. I haven't seen the film, but I would like to. It had me at "Laïcité Inch'Allah".

Here's the trailer (French).